Today’s readings: Job 38,1.8-11; 2 Corinthians 5,14-17; Mark 4,35-41.
For those who have visited the Holy Land, they know that one of the specialities there is a journey by boat between the lakeside towns. That scenario is special for its beauty and is special because it still offers a sense of belonging to all those familiar with the Jesus stories and preaching. Jesus’s ministry in Galilee concentrated around the shores of the lake. The lake, for reasons naturally explainable, is subject to sudden storms, and the rapid change of weather sets the scene for today’s gospel account.
I think today’s gospel narrative of Jesus crossing over to the other side with his disciples and ‘asleep’ in the midst of a tempest, lends itself to interpretations that should venture beyond the usual simplistic understanding of Jesus as miracle worker. What Jesus does when he calms down the wind and the sea, does not put the disciples’ mind and heart at rest but makes them ponder more deeply about his identity.
Jesus here is asleep, when he should have been wide awake and worried together with his companions in the same tragedy. We have become too accustomed in our days with perilous crossings and boat journeys that end up in tragedy. These tragedies, and all sorts of fatality that we come across personally or around us, still provoke mixed feelings and mixed reactions in many of us. There are those who argue ‘who cares?’ But many struggle to make sense of what, even from a faith standpoint, can hardly be acceptable, let alone comprehensible.
Many experience Jesus as being asleep, yet never waking up to calm down life’s troubles. The Scriptures themselves give testimony to such terrible experiences, as in the personification of Job in today’s first reading. Even there, the Lord spoke from the heart of the tempest which, though, had shattered Job’s life and his family. Jesus’s words in such situations – “Why are you so frightened?” and “How is it that you have no faith?” – sound like understatements.
Fear and lack of faith many times go together. Yet having faith does not eliminate altogether fear in life. The disciples’ wonder towards the conclusion of the event recurs frequently in Mark, being the gospel almost haunted from beginning to end with the question “Who can this be?”
This is the question that can only have provisional and partial answers in life. The true identity of Jesus is not a dogmatic and doctrinal statement but an unfolding identity discoverable only in our daily coming to terms with crude reality.
Yet Jesus’s rebuke sounds very strange. As if he would not expect the disciples to panic in the face of danger. But throughout the entire gospel Jesus in no way ever suggests that to journey with him insures us against fear and anxiety.
The big message in today’s scriptures is in the Book of Job – God speaks from the heart of the tempest and says to the violent sea: “Here your proud waves shall break.” And in Mark’s gospel Jesus again calms down the wind and the sea. These telling scenes are very important for us and touch directly on our sensibility as believers.
We all know what storms stand for in the Scriptures and other literature. Peter’s boat, which stands for the Church, has prefers the tranquility of an inland sea to the threats of the open ocean, as is natural with all institutions. It has always sought protection and internal peace.
But the culture we live in today no longer offers such protection. As Pope Francis wrote in his programmatic document: “I prefer a Church that is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
As humans, believers and non-believers, we are all in the same boat, experiencing the same threats and subject to fear and gripping anxieties. We are all worried and challenged by what we fail to reasonably explain and which yet is afflicting us on the level of experience.
From the midst of all tempests, the soft voice of the Lord calls. Faith is actually the capacity to stop and listen to that voice and make us reconnect with our true selves and not lose our bearing in the grip of panic.